00:01.75
jeffekennedy
Good morning, everyone. This is Jeffe Kennedy, author of Epic Fantasy Romance. I'm here with my first cup of coffee.
00:12.17
jeffekennedy
Ah! Today is, say it with me, people, it is Friday! Whoo-hoo! June 21st, day after the solstice. And um we might get rain here in New Mexico, which is nice. ah It's kind of on weird timing today because I just spent the last two nights down in Albuquerque with Ms. Darynda Jones who got a double mastectomy for breast cancer to get rid of her breast cancer, not for it, but against it. um And she's doing well. She's um in good spirits, came through surgery just fine. She is coming up with metaphors to describe how flat she is now.
00:58.60
jeffekennedy
ah with both girls gone and several of you have asked and yes Jeffe is going to set up the Go Fund Me any minute now so ah but she hasn't done it yet but it's coming absolutely coming and I'll tell you all what I hopefully this weekend Jesus Uh, but so I was really glad I was down there. It was good. Um, I drove back early this morning and I got, um, I actually got Starbucks for the drive home. So, uh, yeah. Um, so this isn't actually my point. I knew I had a point there. I'm a little scatterbrained. Um, my point is that this is not actually my first cup of coffee. I always feel like I should be honest about that with you, even though I know you all don't care.
01:51.38
jeffekennedy
Second cup of coffee. ah So um let's see. It's been a busy week. um I am making progress on Reluctant Wizard. Oh, but first, I did turnaround edits on Never the Roses. I got those turned in on Monday, and Deanna praised them lavishly, sincerely, and said that I did a perfect job. So that made me happy. ah My friend Jim Sorensen, I had a writer coffee with him yesterday down in Albuquerque. He didn't have to drive up to Santa Fe for once. ah He said, well, of course. And I was like, oh, it's not, of course. You know you just never know. you're just I'm never sure anyway. you know It's like I do my best. And then I just don't know what they'll come back with. right So I'm very happy about that. She put in for my DNA money.
02:47.42
jeffekennedy
and delivery and acceptance money so that's coming and so yeah cheers. And ah Monday afternoon I went for my annual physical and I passed with flying colors. I've even got most of my test results and everything looks good, so that's nice. ah I asked my doctor about a little thing on my forehead that I was wanted to make sure was not um skin cancer or precancerous and she um
03:20.67
jeffekennedy
gave me a ah referral to a dermatologist. you know She's like, do you have one? And I said, no. And so she gave me the referral and you know said that she liked this place. um And I can even say epiphany dermatology here in Santa Fe. And everybody has always told me that it's just like impossible to get into a dermatologist in New Mexico because of course we're very, very sunny and everybody's always trying to get in to see a dermatologist and they're like oh you have to wait like six months and all this kind of thing so I thought all right well I might as well like get it on my calendar right so Tuesday morning I called um to make an appointment fully anticipating that I would like get voicemail and the runaround and all this kind of thing and
04:08.83
jeffekennedy
gallants of the phone and she had already gotten the order from my doctor and she set me up and she said well actually we have a cancellation this afternoon at 2.20 do you want to come in and I was like my afternoon happened to be free so I was like well sure why not. So if you're on video you can see that I've got makeup on, but they he did excise this little spot and biopsied it, and I already got the biopsy back, and it is not cancer, so yay. When I texted David to tell him that it was
04:45.24
jeffekennedy
just not even pre-cancerous, not even a thing. ah He said, that's good because you don't need more people with cancer in your life. I was thinking, well, yeah, especially me, especially me. um And then he also, I had this little funny spot on my cheek and he did free the freezing on it. He said that would stimulate my body to heal. It was just like a little, you didn't even say what it was, just like a little funny spot that would kind of come and go. So now I'm going to be beautiful and cancer free and healthy and all of these things. And so then Wednesday afternoon I drove down to
05:29.38
jeffekennedy
Albuquerque, which ended up being a major trial because I-25, which is the main interstate between Santa Fe and Albuquerque, was closed the entire afternoon, both directions, um, due to a crash, which happens sometimes. And there's not a lot of other ways to go. And what was funny was, is I went directly from my nail appointment and my I was getting my nails done and talking to my nail gal who apparently I've been going to for nine years now she's been keeping track so it's like she's like we're growing old together and I was like I was gonna say we've grown up together but she's kind of accurate
06:13.20
jeffekennedy
um But then the client next to me, she turns to me and she's like, ah you're driving to Albuquerque today? And she's got this big smile on her face, you know, and she's laughing a little bit. But I mean, if you're on video, you could say, I mean, she's like, are you driving to Albuquerque today? And I said, yeah, after this. And she says, I-25 is closed in both directions. And it's like, I want to ask her, Why do you look so happy telling me this news when you know that this is going to fuck up my life? um And I don't know if it's like I think some people laugh or smile out of like nervousness or something or I don't know. It was weird. I i don't know what to think of that. But I would I restrained my cantankerous self. And I was just like, all right, well, thank you for telling me. And Ruby, my nail gals saying, well, you know, you could take Highway 14 down. And I said, yeah, I know.
07:11.98
jeffekennedy
and I you know put it into my phone and Google Maps actually rerouted me down Highway 14, which means that instead of taking 45 minutes to get to the hotel to meet Durinder for dinner, It ended up taking me an hour and 45 minutes because, of course, every, I mean, that road takes like an hour and a half. And then, of course, everybody was going down 14, which is just this little two lane highway that's very scenic. It was, you know, it's very lovely. And I'd gone that way before just for fun. But it was, reader, it was not fun. And by the time I got there, I was aggravated. And then I,
07:52.89
jeffekennedy
get to the hotel, they've already gone, started dinner without me. I told her, now I'm like, just go ahead and I'll join you. And so I'm unloading my stuff in the car. I really have to pee after an hour and 45 minutes in the car. And I'm unloading my stuff. All I want to do is check in and pee. And this man pops up behind me. and And I actually was startled enough that I yipped. I'm like, ah. And he says, oh, I'm sorry. He said, but I can help you with your bags. And no, this is, I mean, it's a comfort in. This is not the consider, not the bellow, and he anything like that. ah And he's like, let me help you with your bags. And I said, no, thank you. I'm fine. And he said, oh, I don't know. You've got a lot of bags. And I was like, OK, so reader, I have my little dash bag, my laptop bag.
08:41.80
jeffekennedy
a bed with a bottle of wine in it that's it's great because it keeps it cold you keep it in the freezer and it's got like gel inside that freezes and so I had that with my wine in it and a tote bag with groceries right and my purse but still he's like you he says I've got a luggage cart right here I can help you and I said no thank you and he said really I'm happy to help you I'm like no thank you I am fine and he was so I don't know it was creepy I didn't like it and I was already not in a great mood I was like just get out of my face weird dude who was also wearing a shirt that said that um contrails are biological warfare so
09:25.75
jeffekennedy
There we are. And then I check in and this same guy is in front of me. And he's like trying to change his room. And the guy behind the desk can't figure out how to change his room. And the guy behind the desk has to like go upstairs to check to see if this other room is clean so we can move him to that one. And I swear it took like 20 minutes for me to check in. And I also wanted to say to Mr. Con trails or chemical wear chemical warfare that, you know, if you're so freaking considerate, why don't you say, why don't we let this nice lady check in before we go through this long laborious process of me changing my room, which, and he kept trying to explain, you know, like, well, I put my phone number in and I told her, and it's like, nobody wants to hear your story. So it was, I was aggravated, but all's well.
10:23.53
jeffekennedy
Got to spend time with Darynda that evening. That was lovely She had her surgery very very early Thursday morning ah Got back to the hotel in the afternoon. I didn't see her until evening, however, because she wasn't really good. She was nauseated and so forth. ah But then I spent a couple hours with her yesterday evening telling her all to write her gossip. And so that was fun. It was one of the things I learned from Grace Draven. And when she was going through her stuff, when we would talk, she would say,
10:54.54
jeffekennedy
ah you know She would was done with talking about her cancer and how she felt all she wanted was to hear the writer gossip. So that was what we did. And I got to have brunch with Jim Sorensen in the morning. And then because Dorinda still wasn't feeling good, I went out and had you happy hour with Jim and his wife Ming Li, and we had really interesting conversations. So so that was rewarding. um And I have been working on Reluctant Wizard. I'm at about 41,000 words.
11:27.35
jeffekennedy
ah Minerva Spencer has been reading it for me so far and she has notes for me on the beginning. It sounds like the first five chapters are a little slow so I may end up chopping those up but then she said it's just streaming along on page turner. So yay! And I actually set up the pre-order for Reluctant Wizard. It is set to release on August 27th. And Assistant Carien is going to send out the newsletter on that. But I don't think she has yet. Okay, I asked her. um She's been working on it, but she's having a really hard time, has not been feeling well due to what is probably long COVID.
12:12.89
jeffekennedy
Yeah, um so she's not braining very well. um But we're doing the cover reveal and that pre-order is set up for August 27th. So I will put that in the show notes and post it soon. Let's see what she says. Well, she read it, but she has not yet replied. ah Yeah, so so that's coming. I have had ah those of you who are always telling me to take what I need to get this done. You will note that August 27th is a while away and I just have it set up for if I'm not writing more than 2,000 words a day. So we shall see now that Nipah the Roses edits are turned in, that is something off my mind. and
13:00.63
jeffekennedy
Agent Sarah hasn't sent me back notes on first order of the Fae realms yet. So I'm just going to concentrate on this book and hopefully it'll start going faster. Um, but you can pre-order it at a low price. Price will go up on release day, but it will also go into Kindle unlimited on release day. So if you are buying on a different platform, do make sure to pre-order because after a release day, I'll be taking it down from those places.
13:37.66
jeffekennedy
ah Let's see. Oh, and so I want to talk about a little bit about some misconceptions about traditional publishing. um And I do apologize if you were here for this information and just had to listen to all the minutia of my life ah and health and friends health um Yeah, I apologize for that, but that is the brand here at first cup of coffee but but ah You have to like sit through the small talk unfortunately so um Yeah, there's a
14:14.67
jeffekennedy
As always on threads, discourse. ah I notice that a lot of people when they're using the word we discourse that they're using disc and horse emojis instead and I don't know why, I should ask. But I've seen people talking about six figure book deals and what they do and don't mean. And one thing that I saw I don't think I want to look it up. I angle know that I'm saying this a lot on here about threats is that obviously things get surfaced that are um debatable, maybe, you know that that create the discourse. um Green replied and said that the newsletter will probably go out Monday.
15:09.59
jeffekennedy
Um, she's still not feeling good. She's also sick. She got like a lung thing, not COVID from her partner. So sorry, green. Um, Okay, focusing on this, I saw this person talking about you know like how did the six-figure deal gets split up into these little chunks of money, and it's not as good as it sounds, and I think I mentioned this before, and you know it's like, yeah, people, you have to budget. But one thing she said, I believe it was she, um was that, oh, dang it, I am going to look
15:45.50
jeffekennedy
i couldn't find it
15:48.52
jeffekennedy
us to stay on topic now. ah But anyway, this one girl said, you know, and she was being cute, right, but she is like, you know, would you have a treadmill, this, this, and this, and it's all it's like gambling. That was what her analogy was that it's like gambling and um you know money that you're willing to lose and you don't know how well the book is going to do because so much of it depends on luck and that's true and much depends on ah how much they push it and which is also true and then she said oh and by the way the house always wins and it's like okay clever extend the analogy and also
16:27.01
jeffekennedy
Not true. um This idea that some people like to perpetuate of traditional publishing being the enemy is is really unfair. ah And I know that people have bad experiences in traditional publishing. Sometimes things don't go well. um and But, you know, there's this truth about human nature that people enjoy ah telling the bad stories, right? I was telling you a lot of the bad stories of what happened to me this week. um Maybe some good stories too. But, you know, like telling you of my aggravation on the drive and so forth was a
17:12.44
jeffekennedy
you know, partially venting, but also it's more interesting than right, more more interesting, right? You know, like you may not have remembered the part where I talked about that it is a really beautiful scenic drive that I sometimes do for fun. um
17:29.14
jeffekennedy
Traditional publishing is not the enemy.
17:33.13
jeffekennedy
A casino is not your friend, right? A casino is not there because they want to give away money. They're there to make money, to take your money, and yes, they're set up so that the house always wins. And that is just the truth of gambling, of some kinds of business enterprises. traditional publishing is not that kind of business enterprise. It truly is populated by people who work in the business because they love books, because they love books and reading. And um and I can't overemphasize that. You know, you hear all these stories of people getting screwed over, you know, and, oh, orphaned by their editor and, oh, the publishing house decided to promote someone else's book instead and all of this kind of thing.
18:25.21
jeffekennedy
And you know like even the worst editors I've had, and I was telling that story about the one who um didn't like didn't let me review the changes she made to my book, ah which was totally unethical. you know cheap When I first met her, she was telling me a story about like why she became an editor and the love of books and writing. So yes, you're going to meet incompetent people. You're going to have bad luck. um Sometimes traditional publishing doesn't work out, but sometimes self-publishing doesn't work out.
18:56.76
jeffekennedy
and
18:59.88
jeffekennedy
and wing I'm trying to think of how to phrase this, sorry. We don't really hear people excoriating themselves for self-publishing not working out, right? ah Is there anyone to blame there? accept yourself and you know it's hard to take that responsibility and sometimes it's just luck sometimes it has to do with you know that we are selling people something that comes out of our creative selves and maybe they don't want to buy it and you can't make them and you can't make people like a thing and sometimes only a few people like a thing and that's just how life goes
19:44.99
jeffekennedy
So that is where I am at on that. If you were only here for that nugget amidst the chatter, ah hopefully it was still useful. And I hope you all have a great weekend and I will talk to you all on Monday. You all take care. Bye bye.
